Mental Health Minute – Bexar County Department of Behavioral Health
May is Mental Health Awareness Month! Tell us what you do for your mental health using #mentalhealthminute. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please reach out using the resources below. Speak up. Speak out. Ask for help, call:
Center for Health Care Services Crisis line 210-223-SAFE (7233) National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK(8255) you can also visit www.bexar.org/mhd for more information about mental health in Bexar County.
2 Comments
The Center for Health Care Services (CHCS) in San Antonio receives millions in taxpayer funding, including over $2.5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to expand mental health services. Yet, despite this massive financial support, systemic failures continue to plague the city. Under CEO Jelynne Jamison LeBlanc, CHCS has failed to provide adequate mental health and substance abuse treatment, leaving vulnerable individuals without care and forcing many into the criminal justice system instead of hospitals.
A prime example of CHCS’s failures is the Integrated Treatment Program (ITP) facility, the only residential center in Bexar County treating co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. In December 2023, its capacity was cut from 140 beds to just 45, drastically reducing access to treatment for those in crisis. This isn’t a funding issue—this is mismanagement and a lack of accountability.
Meanwhile, CHCS continues a heavy PR campaign to promote its initiatives and partnerships, yet these public relations efforts cannot overshadow the reality on San Antonio’s streets—rising homelessness, untreated mental illness, and an overwhelmed criminal justice system absorbing those who should have received medical care.
If CHCS is receiving millions in public funds, why are people still suffering? Why is the 187th District Court Judge, Stephanie Boyd, admitting that the system is failing and still sentencing mentally ill individuals to prison instead of treatment? Until CHCS and its leadership—Jelynne Jamison LeBlanc—are held accountable, these failures will continue, and the community will keep paying the price.
Judge Stephanie Boyd, presiding over the 187th District Court, made a direct admission regarding systemic failures in mental health care, stating:
“Bexar County and society should apologize to you. Because it is clear to the court that you should have been at a mental hospital, but somebody dropped the ball. Somebody just wanted to do triage and send you out into the world knowing that you should not have been sent out into the world, that you probably should have still been at the mental hospital receiving treatment.” 
Despite acknowledging these failures, she proceeded to sentence the defendant to 12 years in prison, justifying it by saying:
“That ship has sailed.” 
She also compared the mental health system’s failures to a hospital denying life-saving care:
“How is this any different if somebody is at a hospital for let’s say cancer or some type of physical illness and they just get them stabilized and say good luck to you because your problem is too complicated?” 
Her statements highlight a clear contradiction—admitting that the system failed yet continuing to funnel mentally ill individuals into prison rather than ensuring they receive proper treatment.